Financial instruments, such as securities, are issued, priced, traded, and settled in a variety of ways. Generally, financial instruments are listed on a stock exchange and are traded henceforth. With the advent of global trading, the financial instruments are listed on more than one stock exchange or, in other words, are traded in a multi-market environment. These stock exchanges may be local, national, or international stock exchanges, over which the financial instruments are listed and traded. Such financial instruments are referred to as multi-listed instruments and have a significant impact on trading, settlement, etc.
Within the finance industry, the multi-listed instruments have to be identified at different levels, for example, to accomplish the business transaction of which they are a part. Conventionally, the multi-listed instruments are identified using different identifiers at different transaction levels. For example, traders use various versions of vendor codes to identify the multi-listed instruments, whereas in back offices or for settlement purposes, an issue level identifier, such as the International Security Identification Number (ISIN), and a National Numbering Agency scheme number, for example, Security Exchange Daily Official List (SEDOL), may be used as identifiers. These identifiers are used to distinguish between various multi-listed instruments, for determining their fungibility, and to determine a trading position of the users on different markets with respect to the various multi-listed instruments.